Lyn vows to put swim talent on show

Martin Lyn, the president of the Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ), believes Jamaica possesses a vast amount of talented swimmers who are capable of duplicating the feats the association's star, Alia Atkinson, has achieved over her career.

And with this understanding,, he has vowed to bring these talents to national prominence. He told The Gleaner recently that he and his team are ready to tackle the albatross that the lack of money has become in developing the country's talented swimmers.

INVEST IN THE TALENT

"The truth is we have a lot of talented athletes who really aren't being given the right opportunities to develop their talents so they will be able to compete with the best in the world," Lyn explained. "And what we are doing at the ASAJ is trying to secure sponsorship for our premier athletes to go to various meets all over the world. Due to funding, we used to concentrate on meets in the USA but we realised that if these athletes are going to maximise their potential, they need to compete all over the world with the best."

He continued: "If you look at Alia, she spends a significant amount of time on the circuit and does very well and that enables her to compete with the best in the world."

Lyn has put his plans into action as he has helped to secure sponsorship for Breanna Roman to fund her trip to Eindhoven, Netherlands, later this month to compete in a leg of the FINA World Cup.

"We are thankful to Aim Financial Jamaica who has come on-board to help Breanna," Lyn said. "To get her sponsored to go to a qualifying meet is a good feather in the ASAJ's hat because she has done exceptionally well throughout her career even with a few setbacks."

Roman started competing for Jamaica from her days as a junior athlete where she won multiple medals at the Carifta Games. She became the second-fastest Caribbean athlete in the women's 100 breaststroke, behind Atkinson, when she swam to a lifetime best of 59.99 seconds at an invitational meet for Auburn University where she studied engineering.

"She has had a few setbacks and her focus is now to achieve the highest level of qualification for Jamaica which is to make it to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," Lyn said.